Time

You are here

Oil Billionaire’s Artwork Valued at $85m

Ninety modern and contemporary artworks, including a rare Mark Rothko painting, from the collection of the renowned art benefactors Pierre and Sao Schlumberger could realize $85 million at the fall art auctions next month, Fuel Fix reported.

The work “could easily achieve a price in excess of $50 million,” said Oliver Barker, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Europe, calling it “among the finest examples of the artist’s work remaining in private hands.”

Among other highlights is Andy Warhol’s 1974 “A group of Four Portraits of Sao Schlumberger,” estimated between $2 million and $3 million.

Schlumberger’s father, Marcel, and uncle were French engineers who founded Schlumberger Well Services Corp. in Houston in 1935, the company that became the world’s largest oil field services company. Today, the company is still headquartered in Houston and has 8,030 employees in the city, as well as 123,000 around the world, according to Houston Chronicle research.

By the time Schlumberger married in 1961, the oil billionaire had already amassed important works by modern masters including Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard. His wife expanded the collection to include such contemporary artists as Rothko, Warhol, Robert Rauschenberg and Ad Reinhardt. The couple developed close personal relationships with many of the artists.